Universities and Freedom of Speech (Hansard, 2 December 1985)

§ Lord Beloff
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, universities are aware of, and are known to share, the Government's concern to ensure freedom of speech, and the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals is expected to issue advice shortly in the form of a code of practice. The Government are in contact with the University of Manchester, in particular, about the deplorable incident last month involving a Minister of the Crown. The university decided last week to set up a committee to establish the facts fully and to consider disciplinary action.

§ Lord Beloff
My Lords, while I thank the noble Baroness for that Answer, can she reassure the House that when the code comes from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors it will not be a code to limit access to universities in order to give the vice-chancellors an easier time, but on the contrary will make certain that universities accept their responsibilities for teaching their students that free speech is the highest of all university attainments?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I believe I can give my noble friend that assurance. To quote from the Government's Green Paper on higher education issued earlier this year, the aim being set by the Government is: The protection of the right of free speech and the preservation of institutions of higher education as a natural home of free speech", which are duties which students and institutions owe to society and to the future". I may also add that the Government would greatly regret any move in the direction of actually banning controversial speakers from university platforms.

§ Lord Grimond
My Lords, did the noble Baroness notice a report in the papers that an institution described as the Guildford College of Law cancelled an invitation to the learned Solicitor-General to come and address them, apparently on the grounds that the demonstrations which would result would damage its reputation? If this report is true—which I can hardly believe—would the noble Baroness consider whether this is a suitable institution to teach law?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for pointing out this specific case, of which I was not fully aware. If the facts which he describes are true, then I thoroughly deplore the action. It is not in line with the Government's intention, which is to ensure that the facilities and circumstances at educational establishments are such as to ensure full freedom of speech. I shall perhaps be in a position to refer his comments about the Guildford school of law to a suitable institution for further consideration.

§ Lord Annan
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that there is a long tradition of such unfortunate behaviour? Is she further aware that, I think in 1897, Mr. Keir Hardie was kidnapped at Cambridge railway station? Is she also aware that in 1907 a meeting of that peaceable body the Fabian Society was disrupted in a most deplorable manner and that possibly, universities having long memories, reprisals are now taking place? Would the noble Baroness accept—and 1058 I am sure that the vice-chancellors take this matter very seriously—that there are some considerable procedural difficulties, and while every effort ought to be made in universities to cope with this problem there are difficulties in getting the police to come onto the campus?

§ Baroness Hooper
Yes, my Lords, I think that university students have always been renowned for high spirits, but a course of conduct seems to have come into common practice recently of simply not allowing particular speakers to enter an establishment or to be heard. To meet the noble Lord's points of concern I can only say that it is hoped that, once issued, the code of conduct will provide a variety of procedures designed to ensure the most effective protection.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that the fact that my predecessor as Member of Parliament for Plaistow, namely Keir Hardie, had his right of speech interfered with was as obnoxious as any other university interference with freedom of speech?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I may not have been aware of it before, but I am now. I thank the noble and learned Lord.

§ Lord Kennet
My Lords, will the Government pay attention to what may be the appearance of a new trend, namely, the impossibility of holding an international academic conference in this country without the host organisation being browbeaten into withdrawing the invitations which it has already issued to perfectly innocent academics who have come from a country with an unpleasant government? I refer, of course, to the International Archaeological Conference in Southampton University next year.

§ Baroness Hooper
Again, my Lords, I was not aware of that particular case, and again I thoroughly deplore the need to take any preventive action by way of disallowing visiting speakers. I shall pass the question on to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State.

§ Lord Mellish
My Lords, does the noble Baroness feel that the Government, quite rightly—and other people, too—have taken a very strong interest in soccer hooligans and have taken all the necessary action? It is hard for some of us to know the difference between soccer hooligans and the type of scruffs who get a subsidy from government to go to universities, and who call themselves students. Though there may be procedural difficulties, it is really about time that thugs of this kind were told that they will be treated in the same way as soccer hooligans and such.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, again I think we must await the issue of the code of practice before we take any definite stance on what arrangements are likely to be made. I agree that it tends very much to be a minority group, and sometimes it may well be that these are outsiders, as certain incidents have proved. But I think it is important that in this matter the Government advise that the action, and the preventive 1059 action, should be taken by the institutions themselves, including the students.

§ Lord Stewart of Fulham
My Lords, the noble Baroness referred earlier to high spirits. Are we to understand that if one shouts down Keir Hardie or a member of the Fabian Society that is high spirits, but if one shouts down a Tory Minister that is hooliganism?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, it must always be difficult to judge. That is why, again, the enforcement practices must be suggested and carried out by the universities themselves, to ensure that each case is judged on its merits.

§ Lord Quinton
My Lords, is the noble Baroness aware that it is not always outside forces that introduce scenes of disorder when unpopular speakers come on university ground, but that in my university recently the university students' union, which is financed by a ministry of a parliamentary system of government, blanketed the university with little orange notices inciting the general university population to take part in a demonstration? I shall not say that they invited acts of violence, but they definitely incited people to demonstrate—not to attend a meeting and engage in dispute or debate but to operate in such a way as to prevent the communication of ideas.

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, it is always difficult to know the motivation of a group which starts such a disturbance. I can only repeat that it is hoped that the code of practice will be designed to provide a variety of procedures to cope with the problems.

§ Lord Annan
My Lords, can the noble Baroness inform the House whether the code of practice will include recommendations to universities as to the penalties which ought to be inflicted on students if they are guilty of that kind of misbehaviour? Is she aware that in 1974 the University of Oxford had no hesitation in sending down some dozen students and terminating their career in the university because of grave disciplinary offences, whereas in another university students who had committed far worse offences were fined £5? Does she agree that the code of practice should include recommendations as to penalties?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, it is not open to me to comment on the code of practice before it is announced, which is expected to be later this month, but it is anticipated that it will include provisions relating to the expulsion and prosecution of, and the withholding of grants from, students, and possibly also from the students' union.

§ Lord Elwyn-Jones
My Lords, will the noble Baroness seek to ensure that the code of practice will not interfere with the right of lawful demonstration?

§ Baroness Hooper
My Lords, I feel sure that that point will be met.